Poll: Should Danny Ainge be on the hotseat

[TheFlex]

No. We have been rebuilding for two years and are trending upward.

[Celtics39]

For me, Danny has another 2 seasons before I start saying he's not doing a good enough job. It's been only 2 full seasons since the Pierce/KG trade. That's nothing. Is there any person out there who thought that we'd be back in contention in just two years? This isn't the earl 70's when there were only 13 teams and enough talent to reload on the fly. There are 30 teams sharing talent and guys are entering the league younger (requiring more seasoning) and it takes longer to build a championship base.

Don't forget that the foundation of the rebuilding effort is those Brooklyn picks of which only 1 of 3 have been used (1 of 4 counting the swap). Brooklyn might be one of the 5 worst teams in the league next year. Maybe that's optimistic but this feels to me like people giving up on a batter after the first swing. If we spend 4 years out of contention with no stars, I'll start getting antsy.

Absolutely not.

People who think he should be fired don't understand the NBA.  It is by far the most difficult league to rebuild in.  Because of the cap, difficulty matching salaries in trades, the lottery, and the luck in getting "lucky" in winning the lottery when a franchise altering talent is there, the NBA is the hardest league to rebuild in.   

Think about the C's tanking in years past with the best odds at the #1 pick, and ending up with what 3 & 6 the Duncan year, and #5 in the Durant Oden draft?  That's brutal.  Look at Cleveland with 3 #1 picks in a couple of years, and had they not signed Lebron they are likely still a lottery team.  So much rides on forces you simply cannot control.  Further add the difficulties in creating, or maintaining cap space, and then enticing a FA to come to your cold weather city over the likes of LA, Dallas, and South Beach.   In the NBA you generally win with high end, elite players.    It's hard to find those guys at the tops of the draft some years, never mind at 16 and 28.  Danny is doing a terrific job to be honest. He's basically made moves to acquire as many scratch tickets as possible.  To amass nearly a dozen 1st round picks over a 5 year period is truly unheard of in this league.  The part that he can't control is where those picks end up being, and what value they will have to other teams.  Case in point Charlotte yesterday.  If he offered three 1sts to move from 16 to #9, he did more than I would have probably done.  The problem is, Charlotte wanted Kaminsky more. 

The one thing Danny can do, or can control more so than anything else, is tanking.  He can't make the Celtics lose, but he can put together a team that wins fewer games.  For example, keeping a veteran like Bass around this year, or trading for Jerbeko and Datome, then Thomas too, probably netted the C's the handful of wins that propelled them into the 8th seed, as opposed to missing the playoffs and picking around 9 or 10.  At the time it might not seem like a big deal, but come draft day, when luck (or things you can't control) become the reality, it ends up costing you a Justise Winslow or Myles Turner.   Maybe those players bust, and Rozier is the real deal, but how much better would C's fans feel today if we had Justise Winslow right now?

Overall, I think Danny understands the dynamics of the league as well as any GM around.  He has a good eye for talent, and has quickly amassed a sock full of scratch tickets he hopes to get lucky with.  There is no magic bullet in the NBA unfortunately.  You really need a lot of good fortune.  Danny has at least raised the odds for us with his moves to date. So far, we just haven't gotten very lucky.

Quality posts like these are why I come here. TP.

[vjcsmoke]

He offered SIX draft picks.  Charlotte was stupid and said NO, we'll draft Frank Effing Kaminsky.

I can't fault DA for MJ's stupidity.

This was not our year for making big moves.  No fireworks.

But you can count on DA continuing to work the phones and looking for ways to make assets out of nothing.

Sooner or later he will land a big one.

It's hard to capture the magic of the Ray Allen/KG trades.  But if anyone can do it, eventually I believe Danny will find a way.

Between not being able to get a deal done last night and then taking a pick to further logjam our backcourt, last night was an unmitigated disaster. 

If the Celtics don't get an impact player this offseason I think Danny's job should be in serious jeopardy.  Not closing the deal to move up to #9 to get Winslow is an absolute huge mistake IMO and will come back to haunt this franchise.

[Eja117]

Everybody acts like they got something to say but nothing comes out when they move their lips just a bunch of jibberish and everybody acts like they forgot about James Young and Marcus Smart. 

Justice Winslow. 2nd best player on his college team last year...to the rescue!

[walker834]

Why is Danny on the hotseat? What?!

[slamtheking]

Same excuses

A professional sports team with NO ...ZERO ....elite talent .....in HOW many years since KG was traded ?

that would be 2. 


so, he bottomed out the year after trading KG and PP.   got a good looking player in Smart and a decent prospect in Young and that's without using any assets from the trade.

this year, year 2, he used the first asset which was the Clips pick and got a very good value for that slot in Hunter.  oh, he also picked up a decent 6th man in IT for basically a low first from Cleveland AND the team made the playoffs.

this offseason he finally has some cap room.  let's see what the team looks like going into the season and more importantly, at the end of the season when we can see what the Brooklyn pick looks like and how this year's team performs before and after the trade deadline.

a bit soon to be tossing him under the bus

[viking]

If you know a GM willing to trade a Ferrari for a couple of picks and a Hyundai let Danny know.....
He is doing what he can with a team full of middling assets who are lucky enough to look good thanks to a smart coach

People need a reality check sometimes. Complain about fatty Sully's work ethic, then complain that he isn't part of a deal to bring a superstar

[Eja117]

If you know a GM willing to trade a Ferrari for a couple of picks and a Hyundai let Danny know.....
He is doing what he can with a team full of middling assets who are lucky enough to look good thanks to a smart coach

People need a reality check sometimes. Complain about fatty Sully's work ethic, then complain that he isn't part of a deal to bring a superstar

Well what are these other teams actually doing with that Ferrari? Are they racing it or are they leaving it in the garage with their other cars they can't handle while we're in the playoffs? Are they taking care of the Ferrari or is it falling apart?

Don't tell me "Well I got a Ferrari and you got a Hyundai" while we're in the playoffs and you're not. How do people think we got into the playoffs? With cartoon characters that didn't make the cut from Space Jam? 

Obviously you aren't going to be able to cut a deal for Blake Griffin or Kevin Durant. But the 9 pick? Frank Kaminsky? The Hornets are saying we don't have the pieces to get a Kaminsky? Well we do but if they overvalue him then there's not a lot Ainge can do about that except beat them again next year like we will.

Maybe people think our players aren't going to get better. Like James Young and Marcus and Terry R, and Zeller and KO, and Sully are all gonna sit on a couch and say "Well. That's all there is".  It's not Ainge's fault the Hornets drafted MKG and couldn't develop him, whereas Stevens would have.